Thanksgiving night 2017, marks the 30th anniversary of one of the most important nights in Pro Wrestling history. And while we all are stuffing our faces, let’s look back to Thanksgiving 1987.
First up, Jim Crockett Promotions was presenting Starrcade 1987. The Territory’s biggest night of the year was steeped in the tradition of the Thanksgiving cards from both the Mid Atlantic territory and the Georgia wrestling territory, going back decades. In 1987, they held the event in Chicago. A big misstep right there. This was to be Crockett’s first event on Nationwide Pay-Per-View after years of only holding closed Circuit showings of Starrcade since 1983. The headliner that night was NWA World Champion Ronnie Garvin against the former Champion “Nature Boy” Ric Flair, and the match was going to be inside a Steel Cage!
Elsewhere on the card, Lex Luger would be facing Dusty Rhodes inside the cage as well. Luger was putting up his United States Title he had won over the summer from Dusty’s buddy Nikita Koloff thanks to JJ Dillion and the rest of the 4 Horsemen. That night Dusty bet that if he could not win the belt he would have to disappear. Steve Williams would be facing Barry Windham for the fading UWF title, and in their hometown, Hawk and Animal, The Road Warriors would be challenging for the World Tag Team Title against the Horsemen team of Arn Anderson and Tully Blanchard, the defending World Tag team Champions. And the NWA and UWF TV Titles would be unified with Nikita Koloff facing Terry Taylor.
But someone had other plans.
Vince McMahon, the head of the WWF, saw what Crockett was doing and wanted to put a stop to it. He created The Survivor Series, a show that would have teams of five face off in elimination matches. The men, the Women, and even the Tag Teams got a chance to have their own matches. But more important than that, Vince had Hulk Hogan and Andre the Giant. The two men who had headlined the mammoth WrestleMania 3 back in March of 1987. Andre was in bad health with a bad back, but with four other partners, he didn’t have to do that much. So the main event was Andre The Giant teaming with King Kong Bundy, “Ravishing” Rick Rude, The One Man Gang, and “The Natural” Butch Reed again Hulk Hogan, “The Rock” Don Muraco (taking the place for the hobbled and injured “Superstar” Billy Graham), Bam Bam Bigelow, “Mr. Wonderful” Paul Orndorff, and Ken Patera. Three other team elimination matches were also set for that night as well.
Vince doesn’t like competition. Did you know that?
He sent word to all the PPV carriers at the time to carry HIS event on that holiday night and HIS event alone or else they would be shut out of the next year’s Wrestlemania. And with Wrestlemania 3 being just in the rearview mirror, that was something to hold over people’s heads. The potential cash cow holiday night for the cable broadcasters was ruined because Vince didn’t want to share. Only a few companies in the south and a few other areas decided to carry Starrcade that night, Giving Vince a leg up over his competition. He has also denied remembering doing such a thing over the years, but let’s face it, who is surprised?
Crockett’s Starrcade wasn’t the boom that Jim had wanted. With an ill-planned “expansion” and the purchase of the UWF that amounted to a waste of money and a waste of a potential inter-promotional feud, the company was suffering money wise and would only last a few more months before Ted Turner would step in and buy the wrestling company because he REALLY liked Ric Flair. The Starrcade name would live on, even as long as having a house show using that name by the WWE in two days. If that scene doesn’t explain how that night 30 years ago went, I don’t know what else to say.
Vince? He did just fine, but he got some flack from the cable companies for this stunt. Some of whom told Vince that if he ever pulled a stunt like this again, They WOULDN’T carry Wrestlemania.
But they carried the Survivor Series.
The two companies “
So we can look back on that night thanks to the WWE Network and make our own opinions about who put on the better show, but just remember it’s the WWE Network so you can tell who won the battle that night.